THE REACH OF WAR: THE INSURGENCY; Gunmen Kill A Lawmaker In an Attack Near Baghdad

By ROBERT F. WORTH; Fakher Haidar contributed reporting from Basra for this article, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Kirkuk.

Published: September 19, 2005

A Kurdish member of the Iraqi National Assembly was fatally shot in an attack north of the capital on Saturday night, Iraqi officials said Sunday. In the southern city of Basra, hundreds of Shiite militia fighters blocked off streets to demand the release of three militia members being held by British forces.

The legislator, Faris Nasir Hussein, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, was shot dead, as was his brother, when gunmen opened fire on his car just north of Baghdad on Saturday night, Interior Ministry officials said.

Another Kurdish member of the National Assembly who was in the car, Haydar Qasim Shanoun, was wounded, as was the driver. Members of the National Assembly, meeting Sunday, observed a moment of silence for Mr. Hussein.

In Basra, British military officials arrested three members of the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to the rebellious Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, saying the men were believed to have organized attacks on coalition forces. The arrested men included Sheik Ahmad Majid al-Fartusi, the Basra commander of the group, and his aide, Sajjat al-Basri.

Hours later, about 200 Mahdi Army members blocked off streets in central Basra, brandishing rifles and demanding the release of the men. The fighters soon dispersed, but the Mahdi Army later threatened violence if the men were not released by early Monday.

The British Army commander of the 12th Mechanized Brigade in Basra, Brig. John Lorrimer, later released a statement about the detentions.

''I am well aware that the people that we have arrested are prominent individuals in Basra,'' the statement said. ''But let me make it absolutely clear: we have acted against them as individuals, not as members of any particular organization.''

In a phrase apparently aimed at militia members, the statement added, ''It has become apparent that the Iraqi Police Service has been prevented from bringing the criminals to justice by people who clearly oppose law and order.''

Militia members are widely believed to have infiltrated the Basra police and to be carrying out sectarian assassinations while wearing police uniforms. In May, the police chief of Basra Province told The Guardian of Britain that he trusted only a quarter of his police officers, that half of them were fighters secretly working for militias and that some were carrying out assassinations.

In Baghdad, a final draft of Iraq's new constitution was read in the National Assembly, with several minor revisions that had been added since the document was presented to the body on Aug. 28. The charter was then passed on to United Nations officials, who are arranging the printing of five million copies to be distributed throughout the country.

The steady toll of insurgent violence continued Sunday. Just south of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb detonated near an Iraqi Army patrol, killing four soldiers and wounding three, police officials said.

In Baghdad, gunmen in two cars opened fire on civilians in the mostly-Shiite Shuala neighborhood, killing one and wounding four, Interior Ministry officials said. The Associated Press reported that 20 bodies with bullets in them had been found in the Tigris River north of the capital. Interior Ministry officials said they only knew of two bodies found in the river.

In Tal Afar, where Iraqi and American troops are continuing a large-scale offensive against insurgents, American forces raided two houses and killed at least six guerrillas, American military officials said. Afterward, American airstrikes destroyed the houses, the officials said, setting off secondary explosions as weapons in the houses detonated.

Also on Sunday, American military officials announced that an American soldier was killed Saturday night while on patrol in western Iraq near the Syrian border.